By Karen Breytenbach
Justice Writer
Two new judges have been appointed in the Western Cape - senior counsel and former Cape Bar Council chairperson Ashley Binns-Ward and former magistrate and senior prosecutor in the NPA's asset forfeiture unit, Elizabeth Baartman.
Both are Hout Bay locals who enjoy the outdoors, but come from very different backgrounds.
Binns-Ward is an ex-Zimbabwean who worked as a senior prosecutor in Bulawayo when the country reached independence in 1980. He did his articles in Cape Town in the early 1980s, his principal being Derek Mitchell SC, whose office is now next to his and who was among those who nominated him for the position as judge.
Baartman is a fisherman's daughter who grew up in the "dirty little flats" in Hangberg and attended school in Hout Bay until Grade 10 before matriculating in Grassy Park. She says she owes her well-known strict work ethic to her parents, who helped her attain her goals. Considering her background, the protection of natural resources and addressing the needs of the poor are both issues she feels strongly about.
After a five-year stint as a prosecutor in Wynberg, she became a magistrate before 30, and later set up the Cape Town Divorce Court with Wayne Deck, now a senior clerk at the high court.
She was with the People's Family Law Centre, an NGO that ran out of funding, before joining the Asset Forfeiture Unit where she had an unprecedented success rate. Her resignation last year to become an acting judge was met with resistance from her former boss Willie Hofmeyr.
"I had to weigh up a lot in a short time, but I think I made the right choice," she said.
Asked about the challenges of writing good judgments, she said: "Sculpting a judgment is never devoid of who you are. I think your values should be reflected in your judgments, but without imposing it. The Constitution is a torch that lights the way."
She is in favour of non-custodial sentences in less serious cases where perpetrators have rehabilitation potential, but understood society's need for retribution in serious cases. "You have to have the courage to do what is right. The courts have a duty to protect society."
Both Baartman and Binns-Ward agreed that courts needed to be more sensitive to the feelings of sexual offences victims. Baartman said being a woman was a benefit in this regard.
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